I miss my e60 M5, but wouldn't ever get another one. They are awesome cars when not broken down. Maintenance and repair nightmares. Mine had constant SMG problems and I finally got fed up and got rid of it at huge loss. No one wants to or knows how to work on them and they're too complicated for most DIYers.

Go to m5board and you'll see its a constant flow of people trying to troubleshoot problems. There's a reason you can buy SMG M5 with reasonable miles at only about $25k.

I miss my e60 M5, but wouldn't ever get another one. They are awesome cars when not broken down. Maintenance and repair nightmares. Mine had constant SMG problems and I finally got fed up and got rid of it at huge loss. No one wants to or knows how to work on them and they're too complicated for most DIYers.

Go to m5board and you'll see its a constant flow of people trying to troubleshoot problems. There's a reason you can buy SMG M5 with reasonable miles at only about $25k.

I wouldn't say *no one* knows how, just not dealerships.

Being locked into the ISTA troubleshooting flow and having no idea how hydraulic systems works really limits their ability. There's been so much FUD spread over the years as to what actually fails, it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I would wager over the years, better than 30% of the clutches replaced were completely unnecessary. Simply reperforming the adaptation would have fixed many issues.

It also helps when you actually take the time to read and interpret the error codes as opposed to guessing your way through a customer's wallet.

There is enough collective knowledge being built now that it should start taking the fear out of SMG ownership.

I did the same thing, got rid of my E46M3 and now have a 2010 E60M5. Just was time for me to have a a more mature looking car cuz the M3 was attracting way too many kids it seemed and I was in the hunt for a sedan to have next anyway. I must say I like that fact that I can drive in it all day and not feel drained. Love the seating position in it. You do have to wring it out before it starts pulling life a freight train but I like the fact the M5 is agile and light on feet for a 4 door sedan. My biggest complaint is just that it preserves no gas at all, its a $40 spend every other day where in my M3 $40 of gas would last me the whole work week. I am looking forward to modding it, but thats IF I decide to keep it (been looking at X5M's). I want to do a comparison of the two X5 M and E60 M5, as I dont see or know anybody who has BOTH (its either one or the other).

I went from E46 M3 to E60M5 - I liked the E60 very much; comfort and the sound of the V10 with muffler deletes is something hard to match. However as mentioned above you are lucky to get 10-12mpg. The running costs are obviously higher (i think it is almost 11 litres of oil etc. etc.) What worried me was the potentially faulty SMG and rod bearing failures as mine didnt have a warranty. I decided to move on and got a 996tt - now that car beats everything I have owned and will be in another (or 997tt) at some point in the near future.

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